


Up Above The World So High (Like A Diamond In The Sky)

by spilledinkstains (LuLu_ZuZu99)



Series: Single-Mom Lavellan One-Shots [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 10:57:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11147007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuLu_ZuZu99/pseuds/spilledinkstains
Summary: "They couldn’t have asked for a better Herald. Varric still isn’t sure where he stands on the issue, but if the Maker’s wife was to choose anyone, he thought it fitting that She chose a fellow mother. Who better to save the world than a woman who would move mountains - or, in this case, stitch the sky - to keep her daughter safe?"





	Up Above The World So High (Like A Diamond In The Sky)

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the ask from [here](http://dragonagecompanions.tumblr.com/post/160717669818/their-reaction-to-a-single-parent-inquisitor)! Unbetaed, all mistakes are mine!
> 
> Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to Dragon Age, only the story here is mine, yada, yada

Varric had been staring at the blank parchment for what felt like hours, quill hovering over his inkwell, dripping and slowly drying. The Herald and he had eaten dinner at the tavern, where Varric had politely interrogated her for the details about their latest mission, and he wanted to write it all down before he forgot the smaller details. A smaller piece of parchment lay to his right on the desk, notes he had taken while she recounted the events of her past week. The notes were written in a messy scrawl that sometimes even he couldn’t read, so he wanted to draft an outline before the memory of what they said faded. But now, as he sat at a table in the corner of the tavern, his thoughts started to wander to their conversation afterwards…

 

* * *

 

“... of course, Cullen wasn’t happy about me allying with the mages and not just, I don’t know,  _ taking them _ , but he can shove it.” Never let it be said that Ivuna Lavellan is afraid to speak her mind. It had gotten her in trouble with the ambassador a few times, when she refused to take any shit from the  _ shems _ who marched through thinking that they had a right to be upset that their  _ Herald of Andraste _ is a “knife-ear”. Be that as it may, she isn’t an idiot. She may scoff at the title in private, but she knows better than most how important morale is - training to be first of her clan as a youth had taught her that - and though she didn’t worship Andraste, she knew many of their troops  _ did.  _ Ivuna hadn’t ended up becoming first, but a decade or so of training to be has made her a good leader. She wants the blasted hole in the sky closed as much as, if not more, than the rest of her merry band of misfits for a reason none can contest. 

 

Speaking of Ivuna’s reasoning, here came the reason itself. 

 

“Mamae!” the little girl yells, running from her watcher and into her mother’s waiting arms. Varric smiles. At all of 3 feet tall and 45 pounds soaking wet, the six-year old elf has the entirety of the inner circle wrapped around her pinky finger. One of Leliana’s agents, Siona, has been assigned to watch over the child today and Varric nods a hello to her.

 

Revanas has her mother’s blue-black hair, bright blue eyes, and a long, hawk-like nose Ivuna says her daughter inherited from her father. (Varric had tried to find out more about the man, asked more times than he could remember. When she finally gave in, all she said was that she had loved him to his dying day. He didn’t ask again after that.) Revanas starts rambling about something or other and Varric figures that he should leave them alone, but a hand on his arm stops him. He looks over at Ivuna, raises a quizzical eyebrow. She gestures for him to sit, which he does, as she speaks to her daughter.

 

“Ashalan, I need you to go sit with your watcher for a little while more. Can you do that for me?” 

 

Revanas pouts. “But, Mamae, you promised play time!” The girl's eyes widen. “Can Varric play with us too? He’s been teaching me reading Mamae! I can write my name and everything!”

“That’s amazing Revanas, and I would love you to show me later! But, Mamae needs to talk about boring adult things for a little while, alright? Now, be a good girl and go wait with Siona for a moment.” Ivuna gives her daughter a gentle push in Siona’s direction, and the girl stomps off, pouting all the way. She watches her daughter, smiling, and Varric can’t help but smile too. 

 

(They couldn’t have asked for a better Herald. Varric still isn’t sure where he stands on the issue, but if the Maker’s wife was to choose anyone, he thought it fitting that She chose a fellow mother. Who better to save the world than a woman who would move mountains - or, in this case, stitch the sky - to keep her daughter safe?)

 

Ivua doesn’t take her eyes off of her daughter when she speaks. “We live dangerous lives, Master Tethras.” 

 

“That we do, Herald, that we do.” 

 

She pauses, thinking on her words. “So you’ve been teaching Revanas to read and write, while I’ve been off saving the world?”

 

Varric nods. “She was watching me reply to some letters and showed an interest. She’s a smart girl, knows the alphabet by heart already and can write her name by herself, as she told you.” He doesn’t mention that she had broken 3 quills along the way. Ivuna has more important things to worry about than reimbursing him for some feathers.

 

“And the reading?” Ivuna asks. 

 

“Moving a little slower, but we only started a week ago. Even so, she’s determined. I’m surprised honestly, didn’t think she could sit for longer than ten minutes; we all know how much of a little spitfire your girl is.”

 

Across the room, Ivuna watches as Revanas runs in circles around her watcher and grins. “Did I ever tell you what the meaning of her name is?”

 

“I can’t say that you have.”

 

“Revanas: Free spirit.”

 

It’s Varric’s turn to grin. “Well, you certainly chose well.”

 

The grin fades, her lips still quirked, but the light in her eyes dimmed. “She was unplanned, you know. I was 23, my keeper was preparing to step down and I was readying myself to lead my clan. Then… then we had the  _ Arlathvhen _ , the meeting of the clans.” Her voice turns wistful and full of the kind of nostalgia one can only feel when thinking on happy days long past. “I met a man, there,  _ Isenril _ , and over the course of two days I fancied myself in love.” 

 

Varric’s ears perk; was he finally going to get the story of Revanas’ mysterious father?

 

“I know now that I didn’t love him, not then at least, but as the Keeper’s First I had never been allowed the dalliances that teach youths that lesson. We met up whenever we could, secret meetings when our clans crossed paths. We managed to keep it hidden for two whole years.” She squeezes her eyes shut, clears her throat. “And then, one night, my Keeper stumbled upon us in the woods. We weren’t even… entangled, just sitting together and enjoying one another's company.” 

 

He meets her eyes as she opens them, and he feels his heart fall at what he sees there. “The Dalish like to talk big about  _ Arlathan  _ and  _ Elvhen glory _ . I’m sure you’ve heard of how the ancient el’vhen all had the gift of magic?” 

 

Varric nods. She continues. 

 

“Nowadays, we don’t obviously, but you would  _ think  _ that means we would  _ encourage  _ magic. It’s another thing we lost, why wouldn’t we want it back? Why would we… why was the whole clan encouraged to fall in love and build families but me? Why did my magic mean that I shouldn’t be allowed that happiness?” She shakes her head. “Anyway’s the short of it is, that was the last time I saw him. I found out I was pregnant maybe a month later and next I heard, he had been killed by some  _ shems _ that he had run into while out hunting. My clan let me stay long enough to wean Revanas and then they gave me a sack with a week's worth of food and just enough time to grab my bedroll before  _ politely suggesting  _ we leave.”

 

Ivuna looks once again at her daughter.

 

“I have raised Revanas to know that her magic is a thing to be embraced and nourished; something she should be proud to wield, that has been passed down from the days of  _ Arlathan _ and gifted to us by the Creators. She has been taught the dangers and the blessings it brings and she has been taught not to look down upon those without the gift. She has been raised, Master Tethras, to know that she deserves the love and freedom that everyone is owed.”

 

Varric wishes he had been taking notes, but even as the thought crosses his mind, he brushes it away. Some things are not meant for the world to hear. 

 

“I leave her here, with Leliana’s agents, to march across Thedas and save the world  _ for her _ .” He knows this, of course he does. Hearing the conviction in her voice as she says so only cements it as fact and not assumption.

 

“And with every rift I seal and every templar and mage and bandit I am forced to snuff out, I feel this thing on my arm grow stronger and myself grow weaker. I’ve had too many close calls lately, Master Tethras, and my powers as a healer can only do so much. When Alexius called that portal and it grabbed me, my only thought was of my Revanas and the entire time Dorian and I were in that desolate future she was in the back of my mind. The first thing I asked the Iron Bull when we found him was what had happened to my little girl. He told me-” Her voice breaks and Varric waits, as she gathers herself. 

 

When it looks like she isn’t going to continue he prods, “What did Bull say, Ivuna?”

 

“He said-” she starts and then stops just as quickly. She tries again. “He said… that he didn’t know, that none of them knew. One second she was there and the next she was just- gone. That they had searched, but there was only so much they could do at that point. Varric- my daughter was  _ dead _ . After all this work, all the sacrifices I have made to ensure that  _ never  _ happens, I had to hear the Iron Bull tell me that my daughter was  _ dead _ because I hadn’t been there when she needed me most.”

 

Varric freezes upon her words and looks at little Revanas, climbing on her caretakers back laughing her tiny little heart out at something. His own heart clenches. He has known the girl and her mother for all of five months, but the thought of such an innocent life as hers being lost is so horrible that he knows it could only have been tenfold so for her mother. 

 

“I would-  _ we _ would never let something like that happen, Ivuna. You have to know how much we care about her. You have to know that we would protect her with our lives.”

 

Ivuna smiles, and he watches as relief washes over her, shoulders relaxing and a smile working its way onto her face. 

 

“Thank you, Master Tethras. That… that makes my request seem all the more conceivable.”

 

He tilts his head in silent question. Ivuna turns to face him, hands clasped together in her lap. She takes one last look at her daughter before breathing in a deep breath and looking at Varric. 

 

“Varric Tethras, we have known each other only a short while, five months, but in times such as these I think that hardly matters. In those five months you and your Bianca have saved my life more times than I can hope to count. You follow me into dangerous places and take lives to protect mine. You swear like that sailor friend you speak often of, you write books that would make a Chantry sisters face burn red as the fire that took their Andraste, and you have connections that, quite frankly, terrify me.”

 

His eyes widen, which she has to have seen with how intently she’s staring at him, but she continues on nonetheless. 

 

“You have begun teaching my daughter to read and write, and don’t think I didn’t know it was you who helped hurry that one Orlesian ass out of here after he said those things to Revanas.”

 

Varric has to smile a little at that one, despite the seriousness in the air. “His home catching a little bit on fire had absolutely nothing to do with me, Herald. I’m just a storyteller after all.” He spreads his hands as if to prove his harmlessness. Ivuna snorts. 

 

“I’ve seen you impale three men with a single bolt, Master Tethras, that won’t work on me.” 

 

He slaps a hand over his heart. “You wound me madame!” 

 

Ivuna smacks his shoulder and some of the tension drifts away. The look she gives him now is filled more with light hearted mirth than the doom and gloom it had contained a moment ago. 

 

“I’m trying to be serious here, Varric!” she laughs. 

 

“Well you chose the wrong dwarf to be serious around,” he retorts, “Would you like me to go and fetch you a proper, serious dwarf Your Holiness?”

 

She makes a face at the title, but her grin quickly retakes her face. “I wouldn’t know what to do with a serious dwarf after having been around you for so long Varric.” 

 

He laughs, “Can’t argue there Ivuna, can’t argue with that.”

 

They sit together in a comfortable silence for a few moments, sipping from their tankards and listening to Maryden’s tunes with half an ear. Varric hears Ivuna sigh and he turns to her. Her gaze is fixed firmly at the bottom of her mug when she speaks.

 

“There is a very real possibility that closing the breach tomorrow will kill me, Varric.”

 

He knows this. He’s certain the only one unaware of that is Revanas, and he’s not telling her that anytime soon.

 

“Too tragic, Herald. I write exaggerated biographies and romances, but the only time I wrote a “rock falls, everyone dies”-ending, my publisher nearly murdered me. If you’re my next story you have to make sure I can get more than a few chapters, yeah?”

 

It doesn’t pull the smile he was hoping for and the silence this time feels more… pressing. 

 

“I want you to take in Revanas, if I die.” The statement is blunt and to the point. It hits Varric like something blunt and to the point, like, say, a bag of bricks or a boulder, right on his chest. 

 

Varric attempts a chuckle, “I’m not exactly father material Herald.” He falls back on formality and humour, but even he can hear how weak that sounded.  

 

Ivuna gives him a sharp look, “You mean someone who teaches a child basic life skills, such as reading and writing, and protects them, such as running off assholes, and  _ loves them _ ?” She snorts.

 

“Varric, you’ve been a god-send from the moment I introduced you to Revanas. I’ve been a single mother from the moment she was born. I have raised that little girl all by myself, and I honestly thought I would for the rest of my life. But, then  _ this _ happens, and I don’t know whether to think of this mark on my hand as a blessing or a curse. I am dying, may die tomorrow, but I know that if I do, you won’t let that future I saw become reality. I know that you love Revanas and I  _ know _ that you will do everything you can to raise my ashalan right. So, Varric Tethras, the man who will write my story and my best friend, I ask you: If I die, will you take her in? Will you teach her how to survive in this world, will you protect her, will you  _ love her  _ as you would your own child?”

 

Varric doesn’t hesitate. 

 

“Of course I will, Ivuna.” And he knows he will. He looks back at Revanas, at her goofy smile as she hangs off of Siona’s arm and tries to pull herself up and he remembers his own childhood. He thinks of his parents, compares them to Ivuna, and the difference is so stark it doesn’t bear mentioning. That this woman, this mother, thinks him good enough to raise her child, is an honor he doesn’t think he’ll ever live up to. But, if worse comes to worse, he will damn well try. For Ivuna. For Revanas. For the little boy he once was who deserved better. 

 

A hand on his arm draws him from his musings and he’s suddenly faced with bright blue eyes and a hawk nose. 

 

“Play time now, Varric?” Revanas asks. 

 

He looks at Ivuna, who smiles and nods. He turns back to Revanas, musses her hair and watches as she squeals and tries to fix it. 

 

“Yeah, kid. Play time.”


End file.
